May 14 (Bloomberg) -- BlackBerry will offer versions of its
BBM instant-messaging service on iPhones and Android devices,
extending one of its most popular features beyond its own
smartphones for the first time.

BBM will be available as a text-only application for the
competing smartphones in the next few months before adding a
voice feature, BlackBerry Chief Executive Officer Thorsten Heins
said today. The app will be available for devices using Apple
Inc.’s iOS operating system and Google Inc.’s Android, he said
at the company’s annual conference in Orlando, Florida.

The move would give BlackBerry a way to capitalize on the
popularity of BBM, which has more than 60 million users. The
company is also taking a risk by allowing other handset users
access to a service that had been only available on its own
devices.

BlackBerry dropped 1.6 percent to $15.62 at 11:09 a.m. in
New York. The shares had climbed 34 percent this year through
yesterday.